


Safe Harbor

by hope27



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Season/Series 03, road trip fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-29
Updated: 2015-05-29
Packaged: 2018-04-01 18:51:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4030801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hope27/pseuds/hope27
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Felicity wakes from a nightmare, Oliver is there to comfort her and they have a long overdue talk about what happened in Nanda Parbat.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Safe Harbor

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Hey everyone! I hope you are all doing well! I feel like it’s been awhile since I’ve posted (it’s been a week…but still.) I’m going through Olicity withdrawal. So here’s a little one-shot! It got a little angsty with some things that they need to talk about but ends with fluff. :D
> 
> Sometimes after seasons end, there’s a struggle with the muse…but it feels good to get this one out. I hope you enjoy it as well!
> 
> As always, I love to know what you think! Thank you so much for all your support!

She woke with a cry, darting up from where she lay, her hands clutching at the thin sheet, her heart thrumming in her chest as the blood pounded in her ears. 

She swallowed around the lump in her throat, her eyes adjusting to the dark room, fears creeping up on her until she could make out the white hotel curtains fluttering in the evening breeze from the tiny crack they’d left the windows open. 

This wasn’t a dungeon. She wasn’t dying. 

She took deep, even breaths as she felt the soft bed beneath her and the whisp of the cotton sheets against her legs. 

“Hey,” she heard Oliver’s voice distantly, and she focused on it, pushing past the fog of sleep and seeking it out - seeking _him_ out.

She turned towards his voice when he spoke again, her name murmured against her hair, needing the reassurance that he was actually there with her, and not walking away as she lay dying in a damp dungeon.

The memory sent a chill down her spine and she shivered, trying to erase it from her mind, but no matter how hard she tried, it stayed, slithering out at night and wrapping around her until she could barely breathe.

Remnants of her nightmare clung to her and she blinked over and over, tears spilling down her cheeks as she tried to rid her mind of them.

“Hey,” Oliver whispered again, and she finally felt his arms around her, and the way he had pulled her against his chest, rocking her back and forth as he pressed soft kisses against her hair. 

“Shhh...I’m right here…you’re safe...”

“Oliver…” she croaked, her voice hoarse and cracking as she took a deep breath, calming her frayed nerves by placing a hand over his heart.

A loud clap of thunder startled her, her entire body reacting to the sound, and she felt his arms tighten around her. Drawing in a deep breath, she shook her head as she finally heard the storm raging outside, rain beating down on the pavement outside.

That must have been what had woken her - the thunder had been the noise of the metal door clanging shut in her dream.

She let herself relax back against Oliver’s chest, her skin slick with sweat as she calmed her rapidly beating heart, matching her breath to his.

Her hands ran along his forearms where they were braced around her middle and she gripped them tightly, needing to hold on to him in the midst of the storm brewing inside her.

“I’m right here,” he repeated, over and over, “You’re safe.”

His voice was soft yet she heard the desperation and concern, and wondered how much she’d spoken during her nightmare. 

He continued rocking her back and forth, until, slowly, her body stopped shaking. Without speaking, he leaned them back with her still in his arms. She ended up on her side with his body wrapped around hers.

Her fingers trailed up and down his forearms, letting the feel of his skin and strength beneath her own ground her.

His breath ghosted over the back of her neck as he buried his face in her hair before placing a soft kiss on her shoulder.

“Do you want to talk about it?” he finally asked, his voice barely a whisper in the darkened room.

Felicity swallowed, wanting to let him in, yet unsure of how he would react, knowing that it wouldn’t be easy for him to hear or for her to tell.

She stayed silent for seconds that dragged into minutes, neither of them speaking or moving. Her fingers kept up their lazy trail up and down his forearm, feeling the sinew of muscle beneath the skin. 

She was safe and loved in his arms, that familiar peace settling around her despite the fresh memories that flashed through her mind. Their ache dulled by his presence.

With a soft breath, she began to talk.

“It always starts with us back in Nanda Parbat during that night we were together,” she explained, and she felt him tense beneath her, the muscles in his arms bunching as he drew in a short breath. 

She could feel his confusion, the trepidation rising in him at where she was going with her story.

She ran her fingers over his knuckles and slotted hers between his until he unfolded his grip so she could interlace them completely.

With a gentle squeeze, she continued, “It’s perfect...until it’s not. I always wake being dragged away from you and you standing there watching. I’m begging you to help me, help us…”

Tears prick the back of her eyes and she pauses to take a deep shuddering breath.

Oliver is still behind her, his entire body an unmoving wall and she knows what she would see if she turned to look at him. Her fingers clasp his tighter as she forces herself to continue, knowing now that she’s started she needs to finish - she needs to get this out.

“When I thought we were dying...I was so confused...I wanted to believe that you were there; that you had a plan, but nothing ever happened. You never came…”

Her words faltered and fell as her body crumbled, realizing she’d never said the words out loud.

“Felicity…”

His voice is desperate and filled with an agony that breaks her heart all over again.

She pressed on, the words tumbling out of her, needing to be voiced so they could overcome them like they had everything else.

“Ever since we’d left you in Nanda Parbat, I kept going back and forth in thinking you were gone. I didn’t want to believe you could be brainwashed into forgetting us - forgetting me...but then I saw you come back...and you were so cold...you kidnapped Lyla and my brain and my heart kept fighting with each other. My brain won out until we’d come face to face and then you would look at me, and I swore I saw you every time...for just a moment, and I held on to that as much as I could...”

She paused to take a breath, feeling his forehead pressed against her shoulder, his body trembling slightly.

She tried to turn, shifting to the side so she could see his face, but he held her still, and she could feel the turmoil her words had caused.

“I’m so sorry,” he whispered against her ear over and over, “I never meant to hurt you; to make you doubt me. Walking away from you, leaving you down there was the hardest thing…”

His voice shook and she pushed back against him once more, needing to see him. This time, his arms loosened, and she turned, silent tears wetting his cheeks as they had her own. 

Flicking her gaze to his eyes, her heart ached at the absolute heartbreak and pain of a man who thought he’d lost it all staring back at her. Fear clouded his normally bright blue eyes and she immediately reached for him, cupping his face as she brought her forehead to rest against his own.

“I know you did what you did to protect us...to protect me,” she told him, biting down on her lower lip. “I know that.”

He nodded. “I just needed you safe. I needed you all safe.”

“When I thought I was dying, I saw you when I closed my eyes,” she confessed and watched as his eyes snapped up to hers, wide with confusion and curiosity. “I pictured that night and those few moments you held me in your arms and told you loved me, and it was just us…”

A tear slipped down her cheek as her eyes fluttered closed and she felt his thumb reach out and wipe it away. 

“Tatsu told me about your last thoughts before the fall,” she murmured, letting her eyes drift open to find his, staring intently back at her, holding his breath as he listened to her. 

“It was of you,” he rasped, and she nodded, a small smile lifting the corners of her mouth, holding back the fresh wave of tears at the memory of thinking she’d lost him. 

He blew out a long breath, his forehead falling against hers as he pulled her close. Her hands scraped over his stubble and into his hair pulling his head, their lips barely brushing as they both breathed in and out.

“Every night I was there, I stayed in the same room - our room - and knowing that you and Digg and Thea would be safe is what kept me going when I wasn’t sure I could,” he confessed softly. “I’m so sorry, Felicity. I didn’t think about everything else….I just knew I had to do whatever it took to keep the people I loved safe.”

With a sigh, she nodded, their noses brushing as her fingers threaded through his hair soothingly. 

“I’m safer when I’m with you. I always have been,” she said, soft smile curving upwards as his eyes flicked up to hers. “I need you to trust that - trust _us_.”

“I do,” he said almost immediately, one of his hands trailing down her arm to her hands and lacing their fingers together. 

“Then know that there is always another way,” she told him, her voice determined despite the slight waver. “That we’ll find another way together.”

His chest fell, eyes slipping shut as he breathed out, nodding his head. “I promise.”

His words lingered in the air between them as he finally leaned forward and closed the scant distance between them, his lips finding hers and sealing their promise with a kiss.

Felicity moaned into his mouth as his tongue slipped along her lower lip and she arched into him as his hands untangled from hers and spanned her back, pulling her closer as she hiked one leg of his side.

“Felicity,” he rasped against her lips and she heard the plea and promise in it.

He shifted them so his body hovered over hers, her hands pulling at his hair as their lips parted and he began to kiss a path down the side of her throat to her collar bone. Each nip and lave of his tongue another promise against her skin.

When his mouth found the sensitive spot at the juncture of her neck and shoulder, she arched up off the mattress, pressing her hips into his and a hiss left his mouth.

Her eyes flew open to find his pupils blown wide with desire but also filled with open adoration and love. 

She smiled up at him, one hand finding the back of his neck as she pulled him down to her, her other going to his shoulder and caressing the newest brand upon his skin.

“I love you,” she whispered against his lips, and she saw the last strings of trepidation and worry unravel and disappear as her words of forgiveness and love washed over him.

He kissed her once, his mouth lingering before pulling back and letting his body weight settling over her completely, their bodies coming together again as she opened to him. 

“I love you always,” he murmured before kissing her as together they took another step on their journey together.


End file.
